Mysterious disappearances: Police remain clueless as residents go missing one by one

During the last seven years, there has been a drastic increase in kidnappings in the native district of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah — the Khairpur Mirs.

Despite repeated protests and court notices, law enforcement agencies have failed to locate a single abducted person. According to reports, 17 persons are still in custody of different notorious dacoits.

Victims enlisted

Shahid Lashari was kidnapped while he was on his way from Ranipur to Khairpur on the night of his wedding ceremony some five months ago. Qazi Shakeel Ahmed of Luqman Mohalla, Khairpur, also went missing some five months ago.

Imtiaz Bhatti of Gambat was abducted on his way from Sukkur to Khairpur. Niaz Chandio, a local journalist, and his relative, Zubair Chandio, were kidnapped near their Fateh Ali Chandio village.

Abdul Fatah Panhwar of Rapri disappeared last week. Two women, Shahnaz Sehto and Shazia Sehto are in the custody of dacoits for the last two years. Both the women were kidnapped by Asghar Narejo, who has a head money of Rs3 million. Their family had registered a complaint with the police and also approached the apex court but to no avail.

Another woman, Shabana Mashori of the village Nehal Khan Mashori was kidnapped about three years ago. Khairpur city’s Marvi Marwari is missing since the last one year. The Supreme Court has taken notice of the kidnapping of all the four women, but the police failed to recover any of them.

Relatives of these missing persons have tried to contact influential persons of the area to help them recover their relatives but to no avail. Qazi Shakeel’s family received ransom calls to pay Rs5 million for his recovery, Sindh Express has learnt. The family is currently observing a hunger strike outside the sessions court in Khairpur.

Blame game

This is the second consecutive tenure of the chief minister, but hundreds of persons continue to go missing. Of the ones recovered are those whose families agreed to pay ransom. The government has not conducted any major operation against these kidnappers. It was also learnt that relatives of abducted persons managed to visit the hideouts of these notorious dacoits. The police could not do the same.

“The situation was bad even before I joined,” explained SSP Asif Ejaz Sheikh, adding that efforts were under way to recover the missing persons. “An operation would be launched against the kidnappers,” he said.

Khairpur Pakistan Peoples Party women wing president MPA Ghazal Siyal said that criminals were getting away because of political interference of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in the appointments of top police officials.

“The present official is an honest person and he’ll not only maintain law and order in Khairpur but will recover all missing persons soon,” she said, rejecting that 17 persons were still in the custody of kidnappers.

The FIRs of four women have been registered at different police stations but due to alleged complacency of the police, the family members of other 13 persons have not registered any complaints.

There are about a dozen different groups of six to 12 dacoits, according to sources. Despite head money, the dacoit could not be arrested.
A notorious dacoit, Nazro Narejo, has a head money of Rs7 million but the police have been unable to bring him under the law’s writ.